


5 AUs Headcanon Fics (Tumblr Prompt)

by msrafterdark



Series: Originally Posted on Tumblr [5]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-27
Updated: 2018-12-27
Packaged: 2019-09-28 10:44:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17181476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/msrafterdark/pseuds/msrafterdark
Summary: All pieces in this are a part of the "Send me an AU and I'll write 5 headcanons for it" challenge on Tumblr.





	1. Fight the Future AU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: AU where scully left after FTF and she and mulder run into each other on a case a year later.

1\. At first they can barely look at each other. Mulder keeps trying to catch Scully’s eye as he pelts the lead investigator with questions about the case. She stands by idly, not speaking and looking as though she’s not engaged at all. When she finally speaks up to clarify one of Mulder’s questions the detective doesn’t understand, his heart skips a beat and he realizes that even after a year, he’s not over the smoky sound of her voice.

2\. He tries to nudge her aside from the investigation just to ask how she’s doing—he swears that’s all. She lets him get near, but looks intensely uncomfortable when he starts asking about her work at the Salt Lake City field office and he shuts up.

3\. Finally after three days on the case she appears to welcome his presence. She accepts the coffee and bagel he brings into the autopsy bay to check on her progress. She even offers him a smile when he makes a poor taste joke about marshmallows and shrooms being responsible for werewolves. She asks about the X-Files and seems genuinely interested, almost wistful, as he describes his latest case. She offers to lend a second pair of eyes if he ever needs it. He goes back to his motel room and sleeps better than he has in over a year and a half.

4\. He wakes up the next morning to a voicemail message on his cell, left by her at 11:48pm…not even five minutes after they parted ways the night before. _“Mulder, I know the kind of establishment you’re staying in due to years of doing it with you. Bring your overnight bag and some takeout tonight, I’ve left my apartment address with the county sheriff’s receptionist. If you feel like some good muffins and a comfortable sofa for the night, I’ll be done with the latest autopsy by 8…8:30 at the latest.”_

5\. He almost deletes the recording before his phone informs him “end of messages”, but he draws the earpiece to his ear again when he realizes it isn’t finished. He hears her take a steeling breath and murmur words that clench his heart. _“I miss you, Mulder. Please come tonight. I want to talk.”_


	2. Her First and His Last

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: babies Mulder and Scully have sex during pilot and Scully is a virgin

1\. He’s surprised when she comes onto him in his hotel room, her gentle hands raking over his chest after he reassures her that she’s not a victim of alien abduction. She looks hungry and beautiful in the steamy candlelight.

2\. He’s bowled over when she softly confesses she’s a virgin, even wondering for a moment if she’s lying to lull him further into a false sense of security. But she insists—almost embarrassed—that it’s true. “I just…have never believed in meaningless sex,” she confesses, “But the moment I met you, I wanted you.” He’s frightened by the fact that in his bones he believes this is anything but meaningless sex.

3\. He swears he might black out as he eases into her. He’s never felt someone so warm and so plush and welcoming around him. Her body seizes beneath him and he stops, concerned for her comfort and well being.  He asks if she’s all right. “Yes,” she breathes, “I’m…I’m fine…I just wasn’t expecting this to feel…so good.”

4\. She doesn’t come, but she reassures him it’s okay—she enjoyed herself. She wraps herself back up in her robe and he slips his boxers on, settling beside her on the bed. He wants to hold her but refrains, just in case she needs space. He’s heartened by the fact that she doesn’t just leave. She asks him how he got started on the X-Files and he tells her. Everything.

5\. She disappears three months later without a trace. All that’s left is a frantic message on his phone, her voice a frightened screech as she begs him to help her. He never finds her. He never forgives himself.


	3. Miracle Vacation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: AU after IVF failed, Mulder takes scully away for a romantic vacation, proposes to her

1\. It takes forever to convince her to go, even after he’s bought the plane tickets and shows her the reservation for the little two-bedroom summer house he’s rented for two weeks on Nantucket. She even fights with him at one point, saying she’d be better off working. Finally she tearfully relents after he whispers, “You need this. _We_ need this. Please, Scully.”

2\. He holds her hand on the plane. He stands near her while they claim their baggage. He touches her constantly as they wander around the beach house that will be their home for the next several days. He does this not to smother her, but to derive comfort from her for his own recent loss—she’s not the only one who will never have a child. If they’re not her babies, he doesn’t want them. She snaps at him for standing too close when they stop at a grocery store to get some ice. It makes him hopeful that maybe she’s feeling a bit better.

3\. On their third night, he can hear her crying softly in her bedroom. Without a word he goes to her and climbs into her bed to hold her. She sobs, she digs her fingers into his skin, she wonders,  _“Why, Mulder?”_ He has no answers for her, only soothing words, kisses to her hair, and palms against her back. She finally falls dead asleep against his chest, and he fitfully joins her. He wakes up to find her still in his arms and she softly thanks him over breakfast.

4\. On their sixth night, he feels her break through. As they gorge themselves on a crab and sourdough dinner by their front window, she slides her bare toes against his shin and whispers that she wants to go swimming. They slip on their bathing suits, but under the cover of darkness on the empty beach, she completely strips. He watches her as she splashes into the moonlit water, naked and shimmering and…happy. She’s absolutely beaming. She keeps looking back at him until he realizes that she wants him to join her. He dives in with her, grabbing her giggling, slippery body in his arms. And he kisses her. And she kisses him back.

5\. Three months later, shaking and beaming, Scully tearfully approaches him to tell him she’s pregnant. Mulder swears that their vacation to the island is responsible for their good fortune. It’s a challenging and occasionally worrisome pregnancy, but ultimately Scully gives birth to a healthy baby girl. They name her Ennis, after a town in Ireland from the word _inis_ , meaning “island”.


	4. Another Life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Scully is a single mom when her and Mulder first meet AU

1\. He meets her at a law enforcement convention at which he was asked to speak. He doesn’t remember giving his lecture, but he sure as hell remembers the look in her eyes when he identifies himself as an investigator with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. She doesn’t say anything to him, but he manages to find her later by the salad bar during the lunch break. He’s immediately attracted to her. From what little information she gives out, he can tell she’s intelligent, compassionate, and takes no shit. He realizes suddenly they’ve been talking for almost forty-five minutes straight. Her salad is wilted and his pasta is cold. He gives her his card, scribbling his home number on the back. They part ways. He highly, highly doubts she’ll call, but as he walks away every atom of his being aches with the hope that she will.  
  
2\. She does call. They chat nervously until _she_ actually brings up the possibility of getting coffee together. They meet up four days later, all shy smiles and hesitant gestures. She’s a medical doctor, practicing at a regional hospital in D.C. She has a husband, an older man, but they’ve been separated for a year. He watches, completely enraptured as her face blooms with pride and love when she brings up her daughter, Charlie. Of course she’s a mother. What man wouldn’t want this woman to bear his child? He’s getting ahead of himself and he knows it, but he’s so damn drawn to her. He shares with her a little of his work, purposefully slipping in some accounts of monsters—both man and animal—to see how she reacts. She’s rapt, engaging, if a little skeptical. But she doesn’t laugh, she doesn’t mock. He might be in love.  
  
3\. She begins spending more and more time with him. Coffee meet ups turns into dinners. Dinners turns into cooking at her place. They take walks in the park. He sometimes picks her up from the hospital if she doesn’t have her little girl with her that weekend. He calls her on the nights when he’s away on a case, she calls him after a difficult shift at work. He’s never felt this way about anyone—so whole and relaxed and enriched. The increasing softness he sees in her eyes makes him wonder if she feels that way too. They touch. They brush hands. They kiss. On an insignificant night that Charlie is staying at her grandmother’s, they make love for the first time. He makes her cry as he covers her lovely face with kisses. She breathes out that she’s never been made love to like this, like she is someone’s whole world. He doesn’t deny it.

4\. Six months in, he begins to consider marriage. He buys an engagement ring after nervously (and hopefully casually) asking her what kind of metal she prefers over a late-night session of Jerry Springer reruns and decaf coffee on his couch. He begins looking at property in D.C., in Vermont, in Maine. He even looks at some houses in San Diego, remembering her fond accounts of her childhood stint there. He digs up lists of the best elementary schools, the high schools with the best SAT scores, the colleges with the highest graduation percentile. He starts drafting a transfer request for whatever field office they end up near.  
  
5\. Scully calls him on a rainy Thursday evening, her voice clogged with tears. It’s about her husband Daniel: he’s had a stroke. He’s stable, but extremely impaired. Her mother and Charlie are already at the hospital, and Daniel’s daughter from a previous marriage is on her way, too. Mulder can’t breathe. She doesn’t need to say it, he knows this is how they end. Her husband, the father of her child, is ill. Scully’s loyalty is beyond anyone he’s ever known, and he knows her well enough that she won’t divorce him in this state, she can’t.

He tells her if there’s anything he can do for her, to please tell him. She sniffles, and tells him she will. They hang up, the sound of the grief in her voice ringing in his ears. He’ll never hear from her again.

Two weeks later, Diana Fowley comes back into his life.


	5. Ethan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Ethan ends up sticking around for a while, then Mulder decides to step in and subtlety drops hints why he's better for her than Ethan.

1\. Mulder has no idea why the hell the guy irritates him so much. He’s nice enough—attentive to Scully, is polite and affable…he even had the good grace to listen patiently after making the mistake of asking about Mulder’s work following Scully introducing the two of them. He’s everything he expected Scully’s boyfriend to be. But…God, he’s irritating.  
  
2\. Ethan’s a perfect guy, really…almost.  He never seems to annoy or exasperate Scully, from what Mulder has seen. But then he never makes her laugh or smile, either. She comes into the office one day looking glum and somber and Mulder puts himself on a mission. He cracks some dumb jokes throughout the day and manages to make her smile three times until she finally tells him to knock it off. He’s inordinately proud of himself.

3\. He’s bewildered and nervous when three months into their partnership, Scully becomes withdrawn and occasionally testy. He has no idea how to ask her what’s wrong, and he’s a little disconcerted that her apparent unhappiness is so significant to him. He wants to fix it. He tries to tease her, nudges fun-sized chocolate bars into her pocket, flicks paperclips at her, makes dumb quips. She doesn’t laugh, barely smiles. It kills him. He misses their easy banter. He’d give up sunflower seeds for a week just to see her sardonically grin.  
  
4\. She opens up to him finally, three weeks after her edgy behavior began, confessing that she and Ethan broke things off. He’s surprised when she states she was the one to split them up.  
  
“I think…I think when Ethan and I started dating, I had a different idea of what I’m looking for in a man.”  
  
He’s startled at her frankness, and it slips out before he can censor himself.  
  
“Makes sense. A woman like you needs someone in her life who drives her nuts, after all.”  
  
She cocks her eyebrow at him, and for a moment he’s scared he might have pushed too far. Stupid move, Mulder—way too familiar. You two barely know each other. Even if with her frumpy suits and frizzy hair there’s something about her that he hasn’t seen in any other woman he’s ever met. Against his better judgement, he’s become unbearably attracted to her.  
  
“And how would you know that?” she asks. She’s not being coy; she’s genuinely curious, he can tell. Hell, he’s already dipped in with both feet first, might as well dive in all the way.  
  
“Well frankly, I think you like to be challenged. I think you _want_ to be challenged because you find it enriches your life. I don’t know…but based on how well we work together, I think I’d like to know.”  
  
5\. He sees something flicker in her eyes, and if he didn’t know her better, he’d think she was conjuring up some kind of retort. Their partnership—friendship—is new, but there are moments when he has the sensation of knowing her forever. That little spark in her baby blues is one that indicates delight against her better judgement.  
  
“Go out with me, then,” she replies, “Have coffee with me on Saturday.”  
  
He grins and accepts.

 


	6. A Full Family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: AU they keep emily AND william

1\. Scully’s face when she receives the notice granting custody of her daughter does something to Mulder’s heart. He takes her out to dinner that night to celebrate. She’s soft and lovely and he can’t believe she wore that dress _for him_. She accidentally brushes her hand against his so many times he finally realizes it’s not accidental. He opens up a conversation he never dreamed he’d have with her and to his immense shock and delight, she reciprocates. Scully goes from childless and single to having a little girl and a partner in the same night.

2\. Maggie is a blessing, playing grandmother and frequent babysitter to Emily as Mulder and Scully finagle and game plan and reformat the X-Files division—their priorities have changed now, after all. The Scully matriarch even magically manages to coerce Bill into utilizing his pick up truck to move the new couple’s furniture and belongings into a small but presentable house.

“I don’t like that he’s living with her, but at least he’s settling down,” Bill grumbles, hoisting a night table up the stairs.

Scully ignores the remarks—she knows her brother adores his new niece, and that’s all that matters to her.

3\. By the time William comes along, parenting has become a little easier. They know by now that snacks are required to be on hand at all hours of the day ( _“No, Mulder: Pop Tarts do not count.”_ ), no one is allowed to wash Dum Dum the chocolate-colored stuffed bunny, and tummy kisses get rid of most bad moods. Mulder’s favorite smells expand to include not only Scully’s hair and perfume, but also clean sheets, coffee, new paint, warm formula, and a freshly bathed baby.

4\. Though initially skeptical of the new arrival ( _“She’s her mother’s daughter, Scully.”_ ), Emily dotes on her tiny brother. She plays quietly when he naps, she shares her toys, she’s incredibly gentle and careful when she touches and holds him. When he’s old enough to begin eating baby food, she insists on informing her mother which ones he likes and doesn’t like based on his expression. She pulls faces to make him laugh, she draws him pictures, she falls asleep beside him in his playpen.

5\. One night Scully’s just about ready to put the little ones to bed, when she hears Mulder call her into the living room. Curious, she rounds the corner to see the lights dimmed and candles practically littering every hard horizontal surface. Emily is beaming and bouncing on the couch, and even William slouched beside her in all his toddlerdom seems be giddy and aware something is afoot.

“Mulder, what—”

Her partner shakes his head, silently interrupting her. His hands are behind his back and she can practically feel the excitement brimming off his body.

“So Scully…” he grins, “The kids and I have been doing a little talking, and they think it’s high time I ask you something very important.”

Before he even brings the delicate little box out from behind his back, Scully knows what he’s going to ask and what her response will be. Her laughter echos throughout the entire house.


End file.
